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It’s not that I think salads are lame, it is just that I do not want to talk about the “stereotypical Monday salad”. I am just not feeling it. What I am really feeling is all the cozy foods, but that is only because our weather is acting like it is LATE fall.

Ya, you read that right. Late fall. Ugh.

Oh well, I am secretly loving it.

Except not really because our crazy Colorado weather means that there are darkest clouds one minute, then all of the sudden blue skies, then back to dark clouds again. And that can all happen within minutes! It makes taking photos extra hard. The sun either needs to stay in (which I prefer) or just stay out and shine bright. The whole, I am in, I am out, I am half in, half out, thing is just crazy frustrating.

Anyway, this beef. See, I am not normally that into beef. Especially ground beef, but for some reason I wanted to cook with beef a few weeks back. I went a little crazy and made like three beef recipes in one day. One was this Indian Beef Satay, one was totally disgusting, and this one, which you finally get to see today.

I have been holding onto this recipe for too long and I am sorry. The thing is, when I really love something I like to “save” it for the perfect time. I used to do this all the time with new clothes, waiting to wear them till just the right day and now I guess I am doing it with my recipes. It’s totally stupid, but for some reason this is something I have always done.

Now you are probably thinking, is there something special about this Monday? Nope, I just felt bad hanging onto this for so long and figured it was about time to share one of my favorite recipes with you.

And it really is one of my favorite recipes.

It’s super quick (umm, hello twenty minutes!!), easy and a meal that my entire family will eat… with no complaining at all. Yes!!

Oh, and it goes without saying that it is delicious, but I feel like I say this everyday. Right, I do, but what else is there to say? I mean, I would never tell you guys about a non-delicious recipe. That’d be mean.

Really though, my whole family ate this and loved it. The boys went back for seconds and to be honest, there really wasn’t even enough for everyone. Definitely nothing left over for lunch they next day, which they of course complained about – they always have to have something to complain about. Since there are nine people at my dinner table + one or two friends, I doubled the recipe, but I guess I underestimated their beef eating powers. The boys pretty much jump for joy when I make things with asian flavors, but especially beef. Beef is their thing. My eldest brother Creighton tries to live off beef, which totally disgusts me, but he is a true American guy.

His motto is something like, beef all the way – all the time. If you ask me, he needs some vegetables….shh, don’t tell him what really goes into that enchilada casserole he loves so much.

Ok, so everything about this 20 minute Thai basil beef is simple. You make some rice and toss in a little lemongrass for some fresh flavor. While the rice cooks, stir fry the beef. The beef honestly will take you ten minutes tops. It is so quick and the reason it is so delicious is due to all the fresh basil. I freaking love basil (excuse my freaks).

It’s probably my favorite herb to use. I mean, I love all herbs, but I seem to gravitate towards basil a lot. It’s just so good.

Since this takes only twenty minutes, it is the perfect meal for busy nights. With school starting and life getting all serious again I feel like this is going to be your new favorite meal. Or at least I hope so.

I mean, if you like Thai flavors, basil and rice then I think you’ll love this. If beef is not your thing try swapping ground chicken or pork. For vegetarian eaters, I’m sure crispy tofu or tempeh would be so good!

20 Minute Thai Basil Beef and Lemongrass Rice Bowls.

By halfbakedharvest

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Keyword: curry

It's a super quick Thai dish, easy and a meal that my entire family will eat... with no complaining at all.

Prep Time5minutes

Cook Time15minutes

Total Time20minutes

Servings6servings

Calories436kcal

Ingredients

Lemongrass Rice

1cupuncooked jasmine rice

1cupcoconut milk

1cupwater

1tablespoontoasted sesame oil

1/4cupfresh lemongrasschopped

Thai Basil Beef

2large carrotscut into matchsticks

4baby bells pepperssliced

1hot red pepperssliced

2green onionschopped

1tablespoonfish sauce

1/2teaspoonhoney

2tablespoonssesame oil

Juice of 1 limeplus lime wedges for serving

4clovesgarlicminced or grated

2teaspoonsfresh gingergrated

1poundlean ground beefmay use ground chicken or pork too

pinch of black pepper

1/3cup+ 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy saucedivided

1/3cupsweet thai chili sauce

2cupsfresh basil leavessliced or chopped, plus extra for serving

Toasted sesame seeds + chopped roasted peanutsfor serving

Instructions

To make the rice. Add the coconut milk and water to a medium size pot. Bring to a low boil and then add the rice, sesame oil and lemongrass. Stir to combine, then place the lid on the pot and turn the heat down to the lowest setting possible. Allow the rice to cook ten minutes on low and then turn the heat off completely and let the rice sit on the stove, covered for another 15-20 minutes (don't take any peeks inside!). After 15-20 minutes remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork and stir in 1-2 tablespoons chopped peanuts if desired. Note that rice can cook differently for everyone, this is just what works for me.

While the rice is cooking, make the beef. Add the carrots, peppers, hot red pepper, green onions fish sauce, honey, lime juice and 2 tablespoons soy sauce to a medium bowl. Toss well and set aside.

Heat a large wok or heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the oil and once hot add the garlic and ginger. Cook 15-30 seconds then add the beef. Season the beef with black pepper and brown all over, breaking it up as it cooks, about 5 minutes. Once the beef is browned, add 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup sweet thai chili sauce and 1 cup of fresh basil. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the sauce coats the beef, about 3-5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 1 cup fresh basil.

Divide the rice among the bowls, top with equal amounts of beef. Add the carrots + pepper on top of the beef. Garish with chopped peanuts, fresh basil and toasted sesame seeds. EAT!

See, even my picky littlest brother, Red, was all over this one. Now that is rare.

I can just feel those peppers biting my tongue when I eat the rice bowl. The smell of the basil and the lemon grass. Perfect for me. just made a chicken drumstick with lemon grass and it doe s not hurt to see this beef with rice too. Love it, Tieghan.Good AM!

love that you found the perfect day to share this one with us . . that’s not strange at all. . I love it, actually. great Asian recipe and I can see why your family went crazy for it. . I don’t get overly excited about ground beef either. . but when it’s flavored and prepared with some great seasoning, it’s a winner in my book. great recipe!

I’m with you, I like beef, but only crave it every once in a while. I definitely have to be in the mood for it. Although, honestly, I’d probably always be in the mood for this, it looks THAT good. So light, which I never, ever say about beef.

Just made it with ground chicken breast, and hubby was really happy! i wanted to shortcut the rice, and soaked rice noodles instead.. and was really missing coconut milk you have in the recipe. Next time i will follow the recipe to a T. It’s perfection!

This Looks Awesome, I am not a fan of ground beef but I will have to try this the way I do meat for chili, I slice into small chunks then pound it with a tenderizer, I love Thai food, it is at the top of my wife and I’s favorite cuisines.

I found a flaw in your pictures.. thats not thai basil.. thats regular basil that you use in Italian cooking. Using that would give it a totally different taste. Most people dont know the difference, but I saw that when i first saw the pictures.

Hey Sadie!! I use a brand from my grocery store.I have also used Thai Kitchen Fish sauce. You can order here on Amazon. If you do not feel like spending the money to order it, just leave it out, BUT I love fish sauce and think it is a great ingredient. I highly recommend ordering some. The bottle should last you awhile. Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any more questions. Enjoy!

just made this…. so delicious! We had to improvise with a couple of things (we forgot to get fish sauce and used Korean sweet and spicy chili sauce instead of Thai sweet chili sauce since that’s what we had) and have agreed that we’ll just need to make it all again with the recommended ingredients 🙂 thanks for the recipe! filing it away for future use!

I came across this recipe on Pinterest and made it the other night – wow! Hubby said it was “fine dining quality” and my 3 year old gobbled it up (we left out the pepper). The only other thing I changed was to make it with ground chicken instead. Great recipe and thanks so much for sharing! This one is going into our regular rotation, for sure!

I made this tonight and it was delicious. My husband and I both loved it and I’ll definitely make it again.

Some of the ingredients listed were not in the instructions, unless I missed them? I added the honey, fish sauce at lime juice to the beef at the 5 minute mark as well as the white part of the green onions. The green part of the onions I used for garnish.

I’m so excited to make this recipe! I am a little confused about one step – “Add the carrots, peppers, hot red pepper, green onions fish sauce, honey, lime juice and 2 tablespoons soy sauce to a medium bowl. Toss well and set aside.” Do you add this mixture at the end or does it get mixed with the beef? Is it just to marinate the veggies?

Hi Kelly! You are just marinating the veggies and then you add these veggies to the top of the dish when you are ready to serve. They never get cooked or anything, they are just for serving. Make sense??

Thanks for responding so quickly! I made the recipe last night (with some improvising on ingredients like sliced beef instead of ground) and it was delicious! I often use recipes from blogs and the dish never turns out right. Your recipe came out perfect! I look forward to trying some of your others!

I made the mistake of believing this was a quick dish too – maybe if I had a sous chef! It was very delicious, but took me a long time to peel, chop, grate, etc. and prepare the ingredients. My common sense was not paying attention when I decided to make this on a weeknight for the family and expected it to be quick.

I LOVE Thai food, but having just moved to Ecuador, I struggle to find the correct ingredients. Fish sauce is no where to be found so I pureed sardines, (anchovies can not be found either) with salt and soy sauce. It will do in a pinch and I have made the recipe several times. But what do I do about the sweet thai chilli sauce? Lemon grass and basil are both in my garden.

Can anyone tell me how many calories would be in one serving of this dish. I’ve just made it – it’s delicious, thanks so much for the recipe. Problem is…it tastes so good I’m wondering how it fits into my diet!

I read a post that said using regular basil in place of Thai basil would completely change the taste of this recipe. The standard basil is all I can get. Do I need to change the amount used? Looking forward to trying this!

I have literally never left a comment on any recipe I’ve ever tried before but I was linked here from buzzfeed. I made it for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious!! I can’t wait to explore the rest of your website!

Hello! I made this for dinner tonight. Very good! I made the rice in my pressure cooker, no changes other then doubling it. I didn’t have some of the veggies on hand for the beef, and I had almost 2 lbs of beef, but kept the spirit of the recipe. I enjoyed everything, my husband prefers it with plain rice (but he’s a rice purist). Thanks very much!

We loved it. In fact, my sister and I made this recipe TWICE and your “Asian Basil Beef and Mango Noodle Salad” all in less than a week! Obsessed. I’ve already pinned a ton of your other recipes and am super excited to try them. And told my friends about the blog 🙂

Hey Lindsey! I actually do not calculate the nutritional information of my recipes, I just try to use wholesome healthy ingredients. Some online calculators work great though, just put the ingredients into it and divide by the amount of servings 😊 I hope this helped!

Excellent recipe! I have made a similar version that’s punched in with a little bit of mint, but only a little bit as it can easily overpower the dish. Also looking forward to making the rice component of this dish! Gathering ingredients up for this as I write. Thanks!

Good recipe with some changes. First of all, for us it’s way too salty. Next time I’ll cut back on the soy and even remove the fish sauce. Also, since the toppings have so much wonderful flavor, I’d just make the rice plain. I could not taste the lemongrass (fresh from our garden) or the coconut milk. Also, I’d leave out the sesame oil because it overpowers both of those. Even though we use lean beef, it still needed to be drained. So I’d drain the beef first and then put it in with the sauted ginger and garlic. No Thai Basil left in the garden, so I left it out and it still was good. I also sauted the carrot mixture. The thought of fish sauce raw was not appetizing and I liked having the veggies a bit softer than raw. The 20 minutes is misleading. It takes a lot of time just to prep everything, but well worth the effort. Thanks.

We love this recipe. I’ve made it a couple times before and scrumptious and easy! This time, I don’t have any basil in the fridge but do have basil paste so will be using that instead. Hopefully it turns out as good!

I just came across this recipe and boy am I happy that I did. 22 years ago while my husband and I lived in Virginia Beach we would go to a Thai restaurant that had a beef dish that he just loved. It has been 20 years since we’ve lived there and he has not been able to find that dish at any restaurant, and I have not been able to find a comparable recipe….until now. I made this last week and he loved it! Said it was just like the dish at that restaurant. Even my picky-eater teenage son liked it. This recipe is definitely going into my favorites. Thanks so much for sharing!

Really yummy recipe thank you! It definitely took more than 5 mins and n the prep time. 🤔 May be our veggie cutting skills, but not sure. Directions were a little tricky to follow. Would be awesome if it was broken down. For example a heading for “Lemongrass Rice” and list ingredients and instructions. Then another heading for Thai Basil Beef with ingredients and instructions. Either way it was delish. Your recipes are pulling me out of a cooking slump so thank you!!

This is a favorite at our house! We make it at least once a month and I always use ground chicken and add cilantro to the veggie mix because I’m in the camp that cilantro makes everything taste better 🙂 The flavors all come together perfectly and the coconut rice is not to be missed!

Meet Tieghan Gerard.

I’m Tieghan, the recipes you’ll find here are inspired by the people and places I love most. I try to live simply, eat seasonally, and cook with whole foods. My hope is to inspire a love for amazing food, as well as the courage to try something new!